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THE  MOSS  ON  THE  TREES  SHOWS  IT  IS  LOUISIANA  AND  THE  CATTLE  SHOW  THAT  THE  TICK  HAS  BEEN  DIPPED  OUT 


A  TICK-FREE   SOUTH 


U.  S.  DEPARTMENT  OF  AGRICULTURE 

BUREAU  OF  ANIMAL  INDUSTRY 

Washington,  D.  C. 


A  TICK-FREE  DAIRY  HERD  IN  SOUTH  CAROLINA. 


A  TICK-FREE  SOUTH. 


THE  cattle  tick  is  being  stamped  out  in  the  South. 
On  thousands  of  farms,  where  it  once  feasted 
on  unthrifty  scrubs,  there  are  now  pure-bred  bulls 
and  grade  herds  of  beef  and  dairy  cattle,  grazing  in 
security  and  turning  their  owners'  feed  into  flesh  and 
milk  untaxed  by  the  toll  of  blood  the  tick  levies  on 
its  victims.  The  change  that  the  elimination  of  the 
pest  can  bring  is  shown  in  these  pictures.  Their  like 
can  be  seen  in  any  of  the  tick-freed  areas.  These  areas 
are  growing  in  number  and  size  each  year.  Already 
many  States  are  absolutely  free,  and  the  total  eradica- 
tion of  the  tick  is  now  only  a  matter  of  determination  on 
the  part  of  those  who  still  suffer  from  it.  A  trifling  in- 
vestment of  money  and  trouble  will  release  any  county 
from  the  handicap  under  which  southern  farmers  have 
always  labored. 

Good  live  stock  is  the  basis  of  good  farming.  Without 
cattle  pastures  lie  idle,  roughage  goes  to  waste,  there  is 
no  manure  with  which  to  enrich  the  soil,  and  the  farmer 
must  depend  for  his  living  almost  entirely  upon  one  or 
two  cash  crops,  which  may  or  may  not  yield  him  a  profit. 
With  poor  cattle  the  upshot  is  much  the  same,  for  scrubs 
do  not  turn  feed  into  beef  and  milk  to  the  extent  that 
grade  stock  does.     The  average  run  of  cattle  in  the  South 

9015G"— 17 


to-day  unquestionably  is  far  inferior  to  the  stock  in  other 
sections  where  natural  conditions  are  less  favorable,  and, 
in  consequence,  the  returns  to  the  southern  farmer  are 
unduly  small. 

The  tick  is  the  explanation.  For  generations  this  para- 
site has  been  sucking  the  blood  of  the  cattle  of  the  South, 
killing  some  with  Texas  fever  and  weakening  the  vitality 
of  the  survivors.  But  above  all  it  has  prevented  the 
introduction  of  new  and  better  blood  with  which  to  build 
up  the  run-down  herds.  There  is  a  saying  among  cattle 
men  that  the  bull  is  half  the  herd,  but  few  owners  care  to 
import  a  valuable  bull  into  a  ticky  country  only  to  see  it 
die  of  tick  fever.  The  returns  from  grade  stock  in 
heavier,  fatter  animals  and  in  greater  milk  production 
have  been  demonstrated  many  times.  Elsewhere  the 
farmer  is  taking  the  lesson  to  heart,  but  the  man  in  a 
ticky  county  is  helpless  to  act  upon  it  no  matter  how 
convinced  of  its  importance. 

When  the  tick  goes  out  it  leaves  the  door  open  for  the 
pure-bred  bull  to  come  in.  Like  most  good  things,  such 
an  animal  costs  money,  but  for  those  unable  to  make 
such  a  heavy  investment  there  are  the  cooperative  bull 
clubs.  Through  the  medium  of  these  organizations 
farmers  can  secure  for  themselves  at  a  very  moderate 


(5) 


cost  all  the  benefits  of  a  pure-bred  sire  which  "replaces 
in  a  community  a  number  of  individually  owned  scrub 
bulls.  These  scrubs  may  and  in  all  probability  do  rep- 
represent  in  the  aggregate  a  much  larger  investment  than 
the  one  pure-bred,  but  they  do  nothing  like  as  much 
to  bring  money  into  the  community.     In  one  club  the 


This  sire  started  with  good  blood  but  ticks  are  getting  the  blood  that  ought  to 
go  into  breeding  strength. 

membership  fee  was  $7.50  a  year.  In  return  the  farmer 
obtained  in  the  course  of  a  period  of  10  years  the  serv- 
ices of  five  $240  bulls. 

The  ultimate  effect  of  such  organization  upon  the 
character  of  the  herds  is,  of  course,  obvious.  And  the 
South  is  badly  in  need  of  improvement  in  this  respect. 


On  January  1,  1915,  the  average  price  of  2-year-old  beef 
cattle  in  10  tick-infested  States  was  $25.90.  For  the 
remainder  of  the  country  it  was  $48.47.  Eighteen  tick- 
free  States  had  an  average  of  over  $50,  and  only  two 
were  under  $40.  Part  of  this  difference  is  due  to  the 
fact  that  ticky  cattle  are  not  only  scrubs  but  unhealthy 


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This  shows  what  ticks  do  to  a  pure-bred  cow — suck  out  the  valuable  blood  that 
she  should  be  giving  to  her  calves.  The  better  the  blood,  the  more  costly  the 
tick's  meal. 

scrubs  as  well.  The  blood  that  should  go  to  the  making 
of  flesh  is  wasted  in  feeding  the  tick.  The  tick  grows 
fat,  the  steer  stays  thin.  In  one  case  in  which  a  tick- 
infested  steer  was  dipped  as  an  experiment  in  the  arsen- 
ical bath  for  a  period  of  two  months,  the  animal's  weight 
on  the  same  feed  rose  from  730  to  1,015  pounds.     With 


(6) 


A  TICKY  HERD.    MACHINES  FOR  TURNING  PASTURAGE  AND  FEED  INTO  BLOOD  FOR  TICKS  INSTEAD  OF  INTO  MEAT,  MILK,  AND 

PROFITS  FOR  THEIR  OWNER. 

(7) 


dairy  cattle  there  is  a  corresponding  loss  in  the  milk  flow 
from  ticky  stock.  Depending  on  the  heaviness  of  the 
infestation  this  loss  in  milk  may  range  from  18  to  42  per 
cent  of  the  normal  production,  and  a  reduction  of  even 
18  per  cent  is  quite  sufficient  to  turn  a  dairyman's  profit 
into  a  loss. 

Under  these  conditions  it  is  not  surprising  that  in 
many  parts  of  the  South  to-day  both  dairying  and  beef 
raising  are  neglected  and  unpopular  industries.  The 
remedy  is,  however,  simple.  The  way  to  get  rid  of  the 
tick  is  known  as  positively  as  the  harm  that  it  does. 
Repeated  dippings  in  an  arsenical  bath  of  all  the  herds 
in  a  county  will  kill  off  the  pest  in  the  course  of  one 
season,  and  thereafter  all  that  is  needed  is  a  little  care 
to  prevent  its  regaining  a  foothold.  The  danger  of  this 
is,  of  course,  diminishing  fast  as  the  tick  is  removed  from 
one  stronghold  after  another.  Already  312,012  square 
miles  have  been  cleaned  and  released  from  quarantine 
out  of  a  total  infested  area  10  years  ago  of  728,565  square 
miles.  There  is  no  southern  State  in  which  some  terri- 
tory has  not  been  reclaimed,  and  in  all  this  work  there 
are  only  two  instances  of  a  county  once  freed  allowing 
itself  to  become  reinfested. 

The  cost  of  dipping  in  comparison  with  the  benefits 
is  trivial.  From  $40  to  $60  should  cover  the  cost  of  the 
materials  for  a  dipping  vat  for  the  neighborhood,  and 
the  labor  is  usually  donated  by  those  who  expect  to  use 


the  bath.  The  cost  of  the  arsenic  and  other  materials 
used  in  preparing  the  bath  is  well  under  5  cents  a  season 
for  each  head  of  cattle  dipped.  Vats  and  baths  must  be 
supplied  by  the  people  of  the  county,  but  the  U.  S. 
Department  of  Agriculture  will  furnish  trained  men  to 
supervise  the  construction  of  the  vats,  the  preparation 
of  the  baths,  and  the  actual  dipping  of  the  cattle.  Under 
such  supervision  there  is  no  danger  of  injury  to  the 
cattle.  A  few  simple  precautions  do  away  with  all  risk 
of  this.  The  animals,  for  example,  should  not  be  thirsty 
when  dipped,  as  they  might  be  tempted  to  drink  in  the 
bath,  and  this  is  intended  for  external  use  only.  For 
10  years  now,  however,  cattle  have  been  dipped  in 
thousands  in  these  vats  and  there  is  no  evidence  that 
any  appreciable  number  have  ever  been  injured  in  any 
way. 

There  is  far  more  danger  that  indifference,  negligence, 
or  sheer  laziness  on  the  part  of  a  few  cattle  owners  will 
hold  the  work  back  or  render  it  of  no  avail.  To  be 
effective  the  dipping  must  be  done  at  intervals  of  ap- 
proximately two  weeks  and  all  cattle  must  be  dipped. 
To  overlook  a  few  steers  is  to  leave  to  the  tick  a  feeding 
ground  and  a  breeding  refuge  from  which  they  will 
emerge  to  raid  anew  the  dipped  cattle  on  other  farms 
In  every  county  there  are  usually  a  few  recalcitrants 
who  either  can  not  or  will  not  see  any  good  in  tick  eradi- 
cation.    Unless    their    neighbors    are    willing    to    suffer 


(8) 


A  swim  through  the  arsenical  dipping  vat  and  the  cattle 
are  freed  from  blood-sucking  ticks.  A  few  more  treatments 
and  the  county  is  tick  free  and  ready  to  welcome  the 
prosperity  that  comes  from  good  cattle  and  dairy  herds. 


0) 


indefinitely  for  their  obstinacy  these  men  must  be  com- 
pelled to  dip  with  the  rest.  For  this  reason  the  custom- 
ary preliminary  to  a  campaign  of  eradication  is  a  county 
election  in  which  the  people  vote  for  or  against  the 
undertaking.  If  eradication  is  carried,  the  local  authori- 
ties are  empowered  to  enforce  the  necessary  regulations. 


Sanitary  Board  will  designate  the  parishes  in  which  work 
is  to  be  done,  inaugurating  in  this  way  a  systematic  cam- 
paign that  will  result  in  the  freeing  of  the  entire  State. 
A  strong  argument  for  this  movement  to  make  eradi- 
cation a  State  instead  of  a  county  matter  is  to  be 
found  in  the  injurious  effect  upon  a  free  county  of  a  tick- 


Tliis  pure-bred  hull   was  dipped  at  intervals  of  14  days  by  his  Georgia  owner. 
The  owner  knows  his  blood  is  worth  more  in  calves  than  in  ticks. 

Two  States,  Mississippi  and  Louisiana,  however,  have 
gone  further  than  this.  In  the  belief  that  the  existence 
of  the  tick  in  any  county  is  a  menace  to  the  prosperity 
of  the  entire  State,  the  people  of  Mississippi  have  decreed 
that  all  tick-infested  counties  shall  undertake  eradication. 
In  Louisiana,  after  April  1,  1918,  the  State  Live  Stock 


This  cow  couldn't  live  with  ticks.     The  ticks  were  dipped  out  and  she  was  brought 
in — made  160  pounds  of  butter  in  80  days  and  her  offspring  sold  for  SI, 000. 

infested  neighbor.  The  Federal  Government,  as  is  well 
known,  has  quarantined  all  ticky  sections.  From  these 
areas  no  cattle  can  be  shipped  out  unless  they  have  been 
dipped  under  Federal  inspection  or  are  intended  for  im- 
mediate slaughter.  Obviously  these  restrictions,  essential 
for  the  protection  of  the  rest  of  the  country,  hamper  the 


(10) 


marketing  of  local  cattle  and  tend  to  depress  the  price  of 
steers  in  the  quarantined  areas.  Unfortunately,  this  effect 
extends,  to  some  extent  at  least,  to  those  counties  which, 
though  free  themselves  and  released  from  quarantine, 
may  chance  to  be  surrounded  by  infested  territory.  It  is 
because  so  much  of  Mississippi  already  has  been  cleared 
of  the  pest  that  the  people  of  the  State  are  in  a  position 
to  insist  that  a  few  backward  counties  shall  not  indefi- 
nitely disturb  the  trade  ot  the  whole  State. 


For  the  tick  and  prosperity  do  not  get  on  well  together ; 
they  are  not  good  neighbors.  The  tick  means  poor, 
scrubby,  unthrifty  cattle ;  prosperity  demands  good  herds, 
well  cared  for.  The  South,  with  its  long  growing  season, 
its  abundance  of  cheap  feeds,  and  its  mild  climate,  can 
raise  cattle  economically  and  market  them  profitably. 
Where  this  is  being  done  to-day  the  whole  aspect  of  farm 
life  has  been  changed.  It  can  be  done  everywhere,  if  only 
the  tick  is  eradicated.     And  the  tick  can  be  eradicated. 


THE  OWNER  OF  THIS  TEXAS  HERD  FOUND   IT  PAID  TO  GET  RID  OF  TICKS. 

(11) 


THIS  MISSISSIPPI  SCENE  SHOWS  THE  TYPE  OF  FARM  THAT  FOLLOWS  THE  DIPPING  VAT. 

(12) 


A  GEORGIA  DAIRY  FARM  TYPICAL  OF  WHAT  MIGHT  BE  COMMON  IN  THE  SOUTH  BUT  FOR  THE  TICKS. 

(13) 


i&5 


THE  OWNER  OF  THIS  ARKANSAS  FARM  FIRST  GOT  RID  OF  THE  TICK  AND  THEN  GOT  RID  OF  SCRUB  CATTLE 


(14) 


DAIRY  PROSPERITY  ON  A  TICK-FREE  ALABAMA  FARM. 
(15) 


UNIVERSITY  OF  FLORIDA 


3  1262  08925  9922 


For  further  information  in  regard  to  tick  eradication  you  are  requested  to  write  to  the  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry. 
S.  Department  of  Agriculture,  Washington,  D.  C,  or  to  the  local  office  of  the  bureau  in  your  State. 
Address  "Bureau  of  Animal  Industry"  at  any  of  the  following  places: 


Jefferson  County  Savings  Bank  Building,  Birmingham,  Ala. 

Gazette  Building,  Little  Bock,  Ark. 

Herd  Building,  Jacksonville,  Fla. 

Federal  Building,  Atlanta,  Ga. 

Boumain  Building,  Baton  Bouge,  La. 

Millsaps  Building,  Jackson,  Miss. 


Federal  Building,  Washington,  N.  C. 
Western  Union  Building,  McAlester,  Okla. 
Union  National  Bank  Building,  Columbia,  S.  C. 
Live  Stock  Exchange  Building,  Fort  Worth,  Tex. 
Kress  Building,  Houston,  Tex. 


WASHINGTON  :  GOVERNMENT  PRINTING  OFFICE  :  1917 


